Arachne — Complete eBook

CHAPTER IX.

Hermon had intended to add a few more touches to his
Demeter, but he could not do it. Ledscha, her
demand, and the resentment with which she had left
him, were not to be driven from his mind.

There was no doubt that he must seek her if he was
not to lose her, yet he reproached himself for having
acted like a thoughtless fool when he proposed to
divide the night between her and Daphne.

There was something offensive in the proposal to so
proud a creature. He ought to have promised positively
to come, and then left the banquet somewhat earlier.
It would have been easy to apologize for his late
arrival, and Ledscha would have had no cause to be
angry with him.

Now she had, and her resentment awakened in him—­though
he certainly did not lack manly courage—­an
uncomfortable feeling closely allied to anxiety.

Angered by his own conduct, he asked himself whether
he loved the barbarian, and could find no satisfactory
answer.

At their first meeting he had felt that she was far
superior to the other Biamite maidens, not only in
beauty but in everything else. The very acerbity
of her nature had seemed charming. To win this
wonderful, pliant creature, slender as a cypress,
whose independence merged into fierce obstinacy, had
appeared to him worth any sacrifice; and having perceived
in her an admirable model for his Arachne, he had also
determined to brave the dangers which might easily
arise for the Greek from a love affair with a Biamite
girl, whose family was free and distinguished.

It had been easier for him to win her heart than he
expected; yet at none of the meetings which she granted
him had he rejoiced in the secret bond between them.

Hitherto her austere reserve had been invincible,
and during the greater part of their interviews he
had been compelled to exert all his influence to soothe,
appease her, and atone for imprudent acts which he
had committed.

True, she, too, had often allowed herself to display
passionate tenderness, but always only to torture
him with reproaches and demands inspired by her jealousy,
suspicion, and wounded pride.

Yet her beauty, and the strong power of resistance
which she offered to his wooing, exerted so bewitching
a thrall over him that he had been led into conceding
far too much, and making vows which he could not and
did not desire to fulfil.

Love had usually been to him a richly flowing well-spring
of gay delight, but this bond had plunged him from
one vexation into another, one anxiety to another,
and now that he had almost reached the goal of his
wishes, he could not help fearing that he had transformed
Ledscha’s love to hate.

Daphne was dear to him. He esteemed her highly,
and owed her a great debt of gratitude. Yet in
this hour he anathematized her unexpected journey to
Tennis; for without it he would have obtained from
Ledscha that very day what he desired, and could have
returned to Alexandria with the certainty of finding
her ready later to pose as the model for his Arachne.